Technical Help - Heads

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               I'd like to learn how to resize heads from human into other races. I tried this once but the software that was recommended really confused me. Also would like to learn how to fix the line that you see going down the middle of the face on some models. Thanks!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_s e n]

               you need gmax or 3dsmax to fix that, manually edit tverts
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ro Gar]

               I use model scale 0.11. Works great. Sometimes you may have to raise/lower head after sizing. Not sure where this came from but i have this doc with it:


         Copying Heads for NWN
By Martigan


Basic Information:

OVERRIDE vs. HAK

If you only want to be able to use the heads for NPCs, then a hak is fine.  If you want the players to be able to select the heads at character creation, they will need to place them in the override directory as well as being included in the hak.

FINDING THE HEADS:

You can find the head models and export them from NWN Explorer.  
The heads can be found in the following locations:
Original Campaign:  NWN Main Data --> data\\models_02.bif
SoU:  NWN:SoU Main Data --> data\\xp1_models.bif --> Models
HotU:  NWN:HotU Main Data --> data\\xp2_models.bif --> Models
CEP:  NWN HAK Files --> cepanatomy.hak --> Models  
-AND-
CEP Update:  NWN HAK Files --> cep1patch.hak --> Models

When you change the name of a model (whether it is an animal, a placeable, or a head) you will need to go into the *.mdl file and change all the internal references also.  The easiest way to do this is to open a text editor, and do a replace, finding all the old names (which will match the original file name without the .mdl extension), and changing them into the new name (which should be the name you gave them, again leaving off the .mdl extension).

There is also a reference to the texture (coloring of the various parts) in the mdl file.  The easiest way is to just copy that file as well, and rename it to match the new mdl file name.  This does, however, increase the size of your hak or override file that others will have to download.  The way to bypass this is to look through the file for "bmp", and when you see that followed by the .mdl name, make sure it points to the original texture name.


SIZING THE HEADS

If you are just taking a stock head, (or one you downloaded off the vault) and are making it useable for other races, you will also need to resize it.  Halfling-sized heads look really funny on half-orcs.  The program I used for resizing is Merlin Avery's, and is available either on the vault, or on his web page (all links are listed below)

      Female Labels   SCALE   Male Labels   SCALE
Halfling   pfa0_head***   0.65   pma0_head***   0.7
Dwarf      pfd0_head***   0.95   pmd0_head***   1.15
Elf      pfe0_head***   0.8   pme0_head***   0.85
Gnome      pfg0_head***   0.82   pmg0_head***   0.9
Human      pfh0_head***   0.85   pmh0_head***   1.05
Half Orc   pfo0_head***   1.2   pmo0_head***   1.2

Half Elves use the human heads.  For the large phenotype (aka fat), replace the 0 with a 2 (female halfling would be pfa2_head***).  If you don't do this, the head won't show up when people choose the large bodies.  When changing heads from one race to another, you'll have to use a calculator to determine the actual numbers for changing the sizes.  You can't just take the base model for a human head and increase the size 120% to make a half orc head, you need to figure out the actual difference for these.  (All the numbers listed here are percentage of "normal" size, as listed in Bioware's appearances.2da for helmet sizing.)


STARTING NUMBERS FOR THE NEW HEADS: (to avoid overwriting any of the default choices)

         CEP
Halfling
   Male      162
   Female      168
Dwarf
   Male      025
   Female      024
Elf
   Male      035
   Female      044
Gnome
   Male      036
   Female      011
Human
   Male      114
   Female      153
Half Orc
   Male      032
   Female      016




TOOLS AND SUGGESTED READING:

Merlin Avery's Scaling Tool:
http://www.fortressd...com/modelscale/

NWN Explorer:
http://nwvault.ign.c...545441750.shtml

The only Tutorial that I found addressing this (longer than this one, but I highly recommend it):
http://nwvault.ign.c...834098310.shtml

Extremely useful tools for renaming and other model tasks:
http://nwvault.ign.c...331332910.shtml

Free Modeling tool:
http://www4.discreet.com/gmax/

And the NWN Plug in for GMax (you'll need this for gmax):
http://nwmax.dladventures.com/

Custom Content Guide (very useful for modeling tasks):
http://home.cogeco.ca/~eligio/



CREDITS AND THANKS:
I didn't come up with most of this information myself.  I researched it, and found answers from what others had done, and looked through the NWN .2da files.  Thanks to the following creators:

Hannibal Lecture
The CEP Team
The DLA Team for NWmax
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               I always used NWN armoury with some custom editing to handle heads.  It's no better than Ro Gar's method.  It's simple model scaling.  I never found an automated way to deal with TVerts.  Far as I remember you have to open the model with 3ds/Gmax and weld or snap vertices.  I don't have the exact steps anymore, it's been a while since I did such things.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               Oh that's the one that confused me, nwn armory. I'll take a look at those links and see if I can get a trial version of gmax, or a stand in.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               

Jenna WSI wrote...

Oh that's the one that confused me, nwn armory. I'll take a look at those links and see if I can get a trial version of gmax, or a stand in.

Gmax should be free, shouldn't it? All one needs do is register with them, I thought.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Gmax is free, I think you can find it on the vault even bundled with nwmax.


I do not know where I pulled the exact scales from, I want to say a 2da but I cannot remember.


As for the head transforms, this is my nwnArmoury transform file I used:

;
; This .ini contains the standard racial transforms
; By Eligio Sacateca, June 2003
; Based on data compiled by Bearthing
;
; Instructions
; You should not have to make changes to this file to do
; standard racial transforms.
;
; However, some of the transforms are inexact - the Bioware
; models have been tweaked by hand for these. The model
; pieces where this occurs are indicated below with a comment
; about checking or doublechecking the values to finalize.
;


[Global]
; level 1 = basic, level 2 = debug mode
LogLevel=1
SourceDir=C:\\Users\\Wolfman\\Desktop\\NWNArmory
DestDir=C:\\Users\\Wolfman\\Desktop\\NWNArmory

; make sure you set this! set it to one higher than the last [sN]
nTransforms=11

[s0]
; transform for Female, Halfling Head
match=pf??_head???
substitute=??a*
Scale=(0.675, 0.65, 0.57)
Rotate=(0,0,0)


[s1] 
; transform for Female, Dwarf Head
match=pf??_head???
substitute=??d*
Scale=(1.25, 1.2, 0.99)
Rotate=(0,0,0) 

[s2] 
; transform for Female, Elf Head
match=pf??_head???
substitute=??e*
Scale=(0.82, 0.82, 0.9)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s3]
; transform for Female, Gnome Head
match=pf??_head???
substitute=??g*
Scale=(0.8, 0.8, 0.
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s4]
; transform for Female, Half-orc Head
match=pf??_head???
substitute=??o*
Scale=(1.65, 1.48, 1.39)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s5]
; transform for Male, Halfling Head
match=pm??_head???
substitute=??a*
Scale=(0.6, 0.7, 0.7)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s6]
; transform for Male, Dwarf Head
match=pm??_head???
substitute=??d*
Scale=(1.08, 1.05, 0.89)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s7]
; transform for Male, Elf Head
match=pm??_head???
substitute=??e*
Scale=(0.8, 0.8, 0.89)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s8]
; transform for Male, Gnome Head
match=pm??_head???
substitute=??g*
Scale=(0.85, 0.86, 0.81)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

[s9]
; transform for Male, Half-Orc Head
match=pm??_head???
substitute=??o*
Scale=(1.5, 1.5, 1.3)
Rotate=(0,0,0)

               
               

               

                     Modifié par Calvinthesneak, 03 février 2012 - 01:21 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=1389
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               I knew I'd seen some stuff about Tverts...

I don't know if this makes any sense to you (it doesn't to me).

http://social.biowar...46564/1#8766999